


Recede

by chronicAngel



Series: Leaves in the Summer [21]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Broken Bones, Chuunin Exams, Episode 33: Battle Formation! Ino-Shika-Chō!!, F/M, POV Third Person, SasuSaku Week 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 14:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13976619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chronicAngel/pseuds/chronicAngel
Summary: She is only relieved for a second when he gets up.SasuSaku Week 2018 Day 3: The Moment You Started Shipping SasuSaku





	Recede

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I have to confess: I started watching Naruto when it first started airing on American TV in September of 2005. I don't remember the _exact_ moment I started shipping SasuSaku, but this is the first moment in the series I _currently_ consider to be a SasuSaku moment. Is that close enough??

She is only relieved for a second when he gets up. She can immediately tell something is wrong, tongues of flame crawling up the side of his face and down his arm like a sickening rash spreading over his skin, but she can somehow tell it's worse than that, staring at him with wide eyes.

His eyes flick over her for a second, taking in her injuries. "Sakura," he says, tone cool and voice almost rasping. It sounds as though just standing here and talking to her is leeching all of the energy from his body, and she is sure that any second now he will collapse once more. "Who did this to you?" She wants to believe he is actually concerned. She wants to believe that even with all of these people around, he wants to check on her well-being.

But there's something so dark about it.

"Who was it?" He repeats, and she wonders if it is for her benefit or for his. He is speaking so slowly she wonders if he doesn't have to focus just to force the words out. She stares at him with coltish eyes and her left throbs with pain and the need to blink while she continues to watch him as though she is concerned that if she closes her eyes for even a second he will change sides and attack her. He just surveys her from the corner of his eyes, demonically red and filling more and more with anger the longer she stays silent. She worries if she does not say something soon, he might very well explode.

"Sasuke... that mark...?" She means it as an observation but it comes out as a question, her voice wavering weakly as she stares up at him. She sees his eyes move to the bottom of her neck where her hair now lies flatly against her skin and shivers. He's talking to her now, she can see his lips moving, but she can't hear him over her own thoughts and the overwhelming pain throbbing in her head. "Huh?"

"Don't worry. I'm alright. It's just the power flowing through me. In fact, I've never felt better. He gave me this gift, and he made me understand what I am. I'm an avenger, and to follow my path I must have power, even if that means being consumed by evil."

This only serves to make her feel worse, and she gazes up at him fearfully while he asks her again who hurt her. Where only days ago any implication that Sasuke was concerned about her would have her squealing in joy and weak at the knees, she is now afraid of what he might do if she admits the identity of her attacker. She suspects if he lashed out now, he might seriously hurt someone-- he might _kill_ someone. "That would be me," she hears from over her shoulder. Sasuke's eyes flash to him in an instant and she stares between them in horror, catching the murderous look on Sasuke's black-speckled face and the cocky grin marking the other boy's. Briefly, the black pattern burns like embers and grows further across his face.

The boys-- Dosu and Zaku, she thinks-- are talking to each other, but she doesn't have time to turn her head and pay them any mind before there is suddenly a slicing pain in her head again. She recognizes Zaku's technique immediately, hands flying to cover her ears before they start to bleed. In an instant, she feels Sasuke's arms supporting her body and moving her out of the way, and in an instant, he is gone. When she looks around, she finds that Naruto is next to her and Zaku is in front of them, Sasuke standing threateningly behind him. "Ha! He must have been blown to pieces."

"Who?" The enemy boy has just enough time to look over his shoulder at Sasuke before his arm is swinging down into his opponent's neck.

She watches them fight helplessly. Shuriken concealed by fire rain upon Zaku, blood dripping to the ground and being sucked up by the dirt in a second, feeding this forest's cursed ground.

Suddenly, Sasuke is behind him, leg pressed into his back, wrists gripped with bruising force. She leans slightly forward as though she may be able to reach out and stop him from where she sits, eyes widening in horror.

"You seem to be very proud of these arms of yours. You must be very attached to them," he says as the bones in the boy's shoulders creak under the force.

She trembles as she watches him pulling them out of their sockets, painfully aware of what he's doing before Zaku even screams in agony. Sasuke discards him like garbage on the forest floor once he has finished with him, leaving the boy shaking and crying out on the ground while he turns on the boy's teammate and she watches from her place in the shade. _Sasuke_... She watches him, terrified, as he slowly makes his way toward Dosu. The other boy is just as paralyzed with fear as she is and her heart aches both for the boy she loves and the boy he is probably about to kill. _This isn't... This isn't like you_... She feels tears running down her cheeks, but they mix with sweat and blood and dirt and she can only feel them for a second.

Orochimaru's face flashes through her mind for an instant and that's all it takes before she launches herself forward, every muscle in her body protesting as she runs toward him in what feels like slow motion. "Stop it!" Her arms lock around his chest like they belong there and she _clings_. She can feel his eyes on her, something in the back of her mind always registering when Sasuke looks at her, but it feels so very different from any other time she has gotten his attention. She realizes that she doesn't _want_ it, not when he is like this. "Please... stop..." She pleads. To her credit, he has stopped moving. He stands completely still as he seems to mull over whether to listen to her or kill her. After what feels like hours of standing outside of time, the two of them floating to another realm completely, the curse mark starts to recede.


End file.
